I'm wondering if Raikkonen and Vettel will struggle to overtake the slower Mercedes customer cars. Those cars are very strong in a straight line and overtaking at Monza has traditionally been done mostly at the first corner...

Will be interesting to see the Red Bull and Ferrari cars try to come through and see how high Stroll/Ocon can manage to finish. Would be good if Bottas could jump Hamilton at the start as he will almost certainly be slower in the race.

Actually it would be good to see both Vettel and Hamilton behind their teammates to see how Mercedes/Ferrari play it with potential team orders.

Unless Hamilton completely blows the start, something that he hasn't done with the 2017 car and something he only has ever done in the 2016 car - I can't see Bottas taking the lead from 4th. But stranger things have happened.

With the wider cars, its only wide enough for side by side on the entry to turn 1 too.

Unless Hamilton completely blows the start, something that he hasn't done with the 2017 car and something he only has ever done in the 2016 car - I can't see Bottas taking the lead from 4th. But stranger things have happened.

Came back to edit my post as I had completely forgotten Bottas isn't second on the grid

Yeah unlikely to see much action up front then but hopefully Stroll can get a mega start to keep things interesting for a few laps. Is this potentially going to be the first race this season where there isn't a battle for the lead? Or have we already had one?

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

I agree with a lot of this, don't forget the Red Bulls will be coming through the field as well, have to say that I find it almost inevitable that there will be a high value casualty with all the shuffling of positions.

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Vettel is only starting 6th and he has his teammate ahead of him. His pretty much nailed on for at least a podium

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Vettel is only starting 6th and he has his teammate ahead of him. His pretty much nailed on for at least a podium

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Vettel is only starting 6th and he has his teammate ahead of him. His pretty much nailed on for at least a podium

Oh yeah as Bottas being in front and the other 3 cars don't matter.

Kimi will get out of the way and Vettel will pass Stroll and Ocon equals a podium, simple .

Stroll and Ocon will find it difficult to keep Bottas and Vettel behind them. Regardless of their strong straight line speed, its too much to ask for from those cars in dry and current weather is nice and Sunny and expected to stay this way.

This is title defining race for Vettel. He has to finish in Top 3 or title will be gone IMO. Ideally right behind Hamilton at worse.

Hamilton has to ensure he stays out of trouble at turn 1. Williams have done some great starts recently, so has Ocon in his FI, cant afford to get tangled with these 2. They dont know how to take turn one at the front of the grid. They will be new to this. Will be very interesting start today.

Hmmm not really as he can recover the lost points at Singapore as if Mercedes have their usual problems dere, it will be devastating for the considering how good the Redbull chassis is now especially at that track. Lucky for Vettel Redbull took an engine penalty here as its a track you can overtake.

ross brawn , me and several million other people want these silly penalties gone people who understand F1 don't get it , so what ever do F1 newbies make of it -what is the point of a 35 grid penalty -does anybody know and what is the exact point of the super complicated engines and the expense -does anyone know that

extremely complicated expensive engines don't make the racing better I hope we see more common sense soon

I have a horrible feeling Lewis will dominate until near the end at which point his engine will go bang. Kimi will let Seb through on lap 1 and he'll make his way through the field ending up either 1st or 2nd next to Valtteri thus extending his lead.

According to the media, Williams have told Lance to 'go for it' at the start. Well he has nothing to lose and Hamilton has everything to lose, but come on... Williams are a Merc customer. Nothing to see here.

_________________Shoot999: "And anyone who puts a Y on the end of his name as a nickname should be punched in the face repeatedly."

We are into the territory of farce with these latest penalties, I think that moves Ericsson, who qualified 18th, into the top 10, which is quite honestly ridiculous. Wont be the last race this season that it happens either.

_________________http://tsatr.mooo.comThe Sun and The Rain - The reluctant runner.

According to the media, Williams have told Lance to 'go for it' at the start. Well he has nothing to lose and Hamilton has everything to lose, but come on... Williams are a Merc customer. Nothing to see here.

I think Williams will be a lot more concerned keeping Stroll Sr happy than Mercedes.

_________________http://tsatr.mooo.comThe Sun and The Rain - The reluctant runner.

Well done Ericsson for managing a top 10 start! It it rather amusing that both Saubers have been given an 8 place advantage due to other penalties. This will be a very interesting grid line up though. Lets hope Sauber can try a different strategy on their drivers to see if they can possibly manage a point or 2 if there are any retirements further ahead.

grrrr, I get up early this morning to watch the F2 race on NBCSN only to find NO F2 racing, but a repeat/replay of the screwed up timing and scoring F1 Qualifying from yesterday.........

NBCSN should be shot in the butt with a dead rabbit, for their lack of F1 broadcasting skills!

Appears the pre-Race is on now, as scheduled, hope they get their timing and scoring act together today.........

Get in line. TSN here in Canada is absolute crap. No weekly F1 show on the English channel, no FP coverage until 2016 when Blackberry started sponsoring the broadcast and even then they only coverd FP2. They have 5 farging channels and 4 of them are showing the same thing.

This is not a good strategy for growth in F1 viewership. The FOM should have some minimum standards.

P.S. I was just reminded that, though there are no commercials during the pre race shows, TSN puts in a 4 min commercial break every 10 laps once the race gets going.

Last edited by LBET on Sun Sep 03, 2017 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.